


the cracked and cared for

by Raven_K1ng



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dissociation, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Intrusive Thoughts, Light Angst, M/M, Mental Illness, Romance, bpd sasuke??, slight nsfw, they can basically read each other's mind i mean come on they said it in the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:19:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9369746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_K1ng/pseuds/Raven_K1ng
Summary: This may be the worst dream I’ve had yet, Sasuke thinks. And he'll wake at any given moment.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i'm Raven, and this is my first fanfiction on AO3, as well as my first naruto fanfic. i wrote and edited most of it while half asleep, but i wanted to finally try to put out some work. comments and kudos appreciated, will most definitely encourage me to write more.

The return home is a strange thing to Sasuke, because many times out of the day he bears the oppressive feeling of _unbelonging_.

 

The first week is a mess to find him a place to sleep and a way to earn him money. During this time, Sasuke is half asleep on his feet - like he had no idea how or why he’s there. He does find an apartment and a job eventually, because he’s not yet trusted enough to return to being a Konoha shinobi and he can’t keep his place without money.

 

(That is, at least, what he thinks. He never deigns to find out if it is the truth, even if Naruto would help him be reinstated if he simply brought it up. There’s a hole in his heart named guilt, and it whispers nasty in his ear, _‘you’d never deserve it, after all you’ve done. You’d just run away again.’_ )

 

When the out of place feeling persists over the next month, he tells Sakura about it, thinking something may be seriously wrong. He doesn’t see Naruto much in that time, else he might have brought it up with Naruto. While it’s easy to share things with Naruto, and Naruto is still carefree and happy around him, Sasuke is pretty certain he’s barred from seeking help from his best friend. ( _‘And it’s your own fault,’_ the voice hisses, _‘that you can’t. You gave that up the moment you refused his help, no matter if he’s forgiven you and helped you already.’_ )

 

Sakura pauses when the comment leaves his mouth, frowning in confusion. “How so?”

 

Sasuke’s face grows the tiniest bit warmer. He realizes he’s not okay with doing this with anyone but Naruto (even though he _can’t_ ), and he especially doesn’t like to repeat himself. “Hn,” he shrugs.

 

Sakura’s face lights slightly, a near giddy smile growing on her mouth. “You’re probably just in shock,” she giggles, and Sasuke feels his face heat at the sound. He feels as though he’s being mocked.

 

“In shock about what?” he asks, and though his tone is still devoid of emotion, he raises his voice slightly. “Are you making fun of me?”

 

“Not at all,” she says, flustered. She pats his hand, her smile melting into something soft and quiet. It is a rare and disarming thing to see on Sakura, because she could probably level buildings if she chose to do so. She glances into his eyes, sheepish and careful, before stepping out of his space. “There’s nothing really wrong with you, I’d say.”

 

“Then why?” Sasuke snaps. Sakura shrugs, too.

“If you’re feeling out of place, it’s probably ‘cause you didn’t think you’d be back here,” Sakura says. “I mean, you’ve been gone for so long -” she stops, her eyes going a little glassy, before she bulls on. “- and some things have changed. I guess you really didn’t expect Naruto to succeed.”

 

Sasuke hates having to voice his feelings. He’s spent long enough not talking about them, and he’s perfectly accustomed to saying nothing about what he thinks. To avoid saying any more about them to Sakura, he simply goes home with the advice to eat more. He hadn’t realized how little he was doing so.

 

Naruto, however, brings it up two days later, in the first week of the second month. He says, over ramen, “You don’t seem like you’re here.”

 

There must be something in the look on his face, because when Naruto looks at him, he waves his arms. “ M-My bad,” Naruto laughs. “That’s probably not the right thing to say. But I still - I dunno. It’s a little surreal.”

 

Sasuke can’t make sense of the feeling in his chest when he sees Naruto’s grin, and he can’t make sense of the sensation of the world being tilted on an angle. So he nods, finishes his ramen, and slips off to crawl under his bed covers and sleep through the day.

 

/////////////

 

That night, Sasuke wakes with the lingering sensation that his life has become nothing more than a massive dream.  
  
From what he's learned in the Academy, dreams only happen in the moments just before waking. They happen when your eyes can still move, when your body is awake even when your mind is losing touch. They call it REM sleep, or something like that (too much has happened since he’s been in school), but all Sasuke knows about his dreams is that he tends to close his eyes in them, only to awaken to reality.

It is because of this knowledge that, one night, he decides to forgo sleep entirely.  
  
Instead, he walks the quiet roads of Konoha, and wishes the feeling would go away. He must be thinking too hard on this, because when he passes other wandering citizens, they veer away from him. He's seen how emotionless his face tends to be, and he doesn't blame them for shying, but the fact that they do only strengthens this ever present ideas that he simply does not belong to this moment, to this reality.

In some dreams, you watch yourself fall asleep,only to wake up in the real world with the dwindling knowledge that what happened inside your head isn't it, and you’ve woken up too fast and too sudden to retain the memory. He fears he will forget this dream, and how this defeat hasn’t really felt like a defeat.  
  
He zones out, at least partially, because he’s an Uchiha, a born warrior, and no warrior ever allows himself to be entirely distracted. Still, he’s not paying attention as his feet take him to Konoha's gate; that’s where he finds Naruto, sitting directly before it, in sweats and a black tee.   
  
"I hope," he says, quiet as the night, "you don't plan on leaving again."   
  
He shakes his head once, because any more movement is a little scary. If it is a nightmare, he hopes it will not be like all his others. Moving too much in his nightmares triggers something to leap at him and startle him awake, and he still isn't ready to wake up.   
  
Naruto’s mouth thins into a pale line. When he stands, Sasuke’s eyes lock into the tan slice of skin, only visible because of Naruto’s too small shirt.   
  
"I believe you," Naruto says, even if his eyes are dark with fear and grief. "You wouldn't leave anymore."   
  
"I wouldn't." Sasuke agrees. His voice catches in his throat, because it's a little bit of a lie. He might do it, if only to prove something.   
  
Naruto moves closer, his face melting into a smile. He links his hands behind his head; moonlight catches onto the curve of Naruto’s cheek and jaw, and he looks like he’s part of the dream too. Sasuke’s chest constricts with something that's gone past real fear, but the sensation is distant.   
  
Naruto doesn't ask, but Sasuke can tell Naruto wants to know why he’s outside so late. "I couldn't sleep," he says, with a half-shrug.   
  
"Me neither," Naruto laughs, soft. "Thought you might, I don't know -" and Sasuke does know, even if Naruto doesn't say it. _‘I thought you might leave,’_ the guilty voice supplies. "Anyway, I'm heading back."   
  
Somehow, the walk back to Naruto’s place includes Sasuke, even if he lives on the opposite side of the village. Sasuke is too proud to acknowledge that he’s acting like a stray cat, but Naruto doesn't say anything at all about it.   
  
A silent agreement leaves Sasuke on Naruto's tiny couch. The blanket Naruto loans him smells strongly of Naruto's soap and of spices Naruto mixes into his instant ramen. Even if it is a dream, Sasuke find he is okay with sleeping surrounded by Naruto the way that he is. It feels a little more like the word home.   
  
So he closes his eyes.   
  
  
/////////////

  
He does not expect the sunshine to irritate his eyes the next morning, but Naruto is shaking him awake for breakfast, and there's nothing nicer than watching Naruto's eyes catch the sunlight and burn cerulean.   


/////////////  
  
Some nights, he dreams of Naruto in strange ways. He remembers their first fight, the madder red of Naruto's eyes, the way Sasuke turned his best friend into the demon most people feared, an ironic twist to the fact that Sasuke accepted him no matter if he was harboring a powerful monster.   
  
Some nights, he remembers how it feels to put a hole in Naruto's right lung, the blood slithering snakes down his arm. (His missing arm throbs fiercely those nights, and he has to fight to get his breathing under control. Uchihas are born to be incredibly capable of hurting people, but are not born with a resistance to feeling regret.)   
  
Some nights, it's Naruto at the age he is now, face twisted betrayed and horrified, with Sasuke’s hand in the left side this time.   
  
Some nights, Naruto is breathing Sasuke’s name like he owns it, whispering all he would do to keep Sasuke with him. Sasuke feels too warm under the grave weight of Naruto's eyes, and he can't stop himself from pressing their bodies together and begging that Naruto keeps proving it.   
  
Sasuke finds that most of his dreams are nightmares, and while he wants to take a chance and see if the Naruto in his dreams would prove such a things, he decides not to sleep.

/////////////  


Sasuke feels like his voice doesn’t really exist in the days when Naruto isn’t around, because he doesn’t talk to others. A stormy night finds him at the edge of one of the taller building in Konoha with his skin thrumming. The rain flattens his hair to his head, but the only thing he can pay attention to is the drop just past his knees. Were he a civilian and not a shinobi, he could die upon impact, or break his legs painfully, and somehow he considers how much of his arm strength it would take to simply drop his body off the edge ( _‘which wouldn’t much at all’_ ).

 

If he’s going a little crazy, he can chalk it up to the cold rain on his back, or maybe to the fact that he hasn’t eaten more than apples or rice as his only meal for the day in almost a week, or maybe, even, to the 3 hours of sleep he’s had in the last 60. There’s very little reason to keep track of his body or his mind, even though he really should.

 

Naruto finds him on that edge the night he returns from his week long mission, and the world seems to brighten, even if its just a little. Sasuke’s heart skips a beat.

 

“There you are, bastard,” Naruto cheers, and only Naruto could make ‘bastard’ sound endearing. Sasuke’s dry lips twitch into a smile.

 

“Here I am, dead last,” Sasuke responds. Naruto joins him at the edge, a bandage over his nose and a soft grin across his face. Naruto stares right into his eyes, blue on black, and he feels the guilt rise in his again as Naruto asks, “What are you doing here?”

 

Sasuke can only shrug. Naruto scrutinizes him, looking him up and down in a way that makes Sasuke want to fidget, vaguely. Then he says, “What’s up with you?”

 

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?” Sasuke shoots back, offended.

 

“You know, not everything I say is meant as a challenge,” Naruto laughs. Sasuke is most definitely _not_ pouting, because the Uchiha _don’t pout_ , of all things. Naruto’s louder laugh begs to differ, though.

 

“You look like an angry cat with your hair flattened like that, “ he says. Sasuke swats him in the back of the head with a quick flick of his wrist, and his hand comes down and settles halfway across Naruto’s fingers. He pulls his hand away when Naruto looks down at it.

 

“First duck-butt, now wet cat. I’m _seriously_ questioning your hairstyle choices,” Naruto is still laughing, and dodges the punch Sasuke’s aims at his head. Because Naruto’s laugh is contagious, however, Sasuke finds himself laughing too, albeit a whole lot quieter. He pretends not to notice the sly grin Naruto gives him for a half-second, nor the fact that his voice feels existent again.

 

Instead, he says, “At least I can change my hair. You can’t do anything about those dumb whiskers.” And they fall easily into bickering, interrupted only by the events of Naruto’s mission. Sasuke doesn’t looks back at the ledge as he follows Naruto to Ichiraku Ramen.

 

/////////////

 

“I’m sorry,” Sasuke murmurs suddenly. The ragged edges of the guilt feel like they’ll rip him apart, and because this is all one beautiful nightmare, he might actually tear at the seams, and then he’ll wake up and it will end. The world feels too still.

 

“For what?” Naruto asks, his eyes shining azure and concerned. Sasuke doesn’t want to say it  out loud, doesn’t want to look Naruto in the eye, and perhaps he doesn’t have to. Naruto knows.

 

“If I hadn’t already forgiven you,” Naruto says, poking at the narutomaki with his chopsticks. “I wouldn’t have brought you back.” Then he reaches and swipes the narutomaki in Sasuke’s bowl, and the world continues to turn.

 

_This may be the worst dream I’ve had yet,_ Sasuke thinks.

 

/////////////

  
Naruto is not the smartest person ever, but he is perceptive and cunning at times. He's quickly aware of the fact that Sasuke is not sleeping or eating. Sasuke, however, knows his murderously blank face well, and he thinks he might have always looked hollow, bags under his eyes and ribs showing lightly through his skin.   
  
When he points this out, Naruto take immediate, bewildering personal offense, and starts visiting on the regular. Every other day, no matter the time, Naruto is at his apartment. Sasuke knows he doesn't deserve this kind of care, no matter how much he craves it, which makes it hard to voice that Sasuke doesn't even trust himself enough to stay, no matter how much faith Naruto has in him.   
  
However, during this time he learns things about Naruto that came during his absence. Naruto has a much bulkier physique, a built back and chest, can cook so much better than before, where he could only make ramen. He relearns the fact that Naruto is right handed ( _and missing the arm for it,_ Sasuke thinks, _the one I took_ ), relearns the kaleidoscope of blues that lie in Naruto's eyes, and that Naruto is full to the being with emotions, letting them out where Sasuke attempts to ignore them.

 

(And he’s always been watching Naruto, out of the corner of his eyes and when the other was not looking.The only difference is the gesture is a lot less innocent than it was when they were twelve.)  
  
Sasuke doesn't care to admit that he's gotten so used to the company of Naruto that he actively seeks it, looks forward to it, and fears losing it to his real life, lacking the blond head of hair and the kilowatt smile. He lets himself into Naruto's apartment whether or not Naruto is there, feeling angry at how much closer Naruto feels to him, and at how much closer he feels to waking up without.  His headspace feels little less dazed and dream-like when he inhales the smell of Naruto's blankets, and he doesn’t think to question the implications, or answer the recurring question in the back of his head.

  
A dream is a dream, no matter how vivid. He hates it so much it’s nauseating.   
  
"This is different," Sasuke says, on an overcast afternoon, angry at this stupid dream, this stupid world, his stupid mistakes, and his stupid reality. Naruto peeks at him over his shoulder, nonplussed by the fury that sharpens the edge in his voice, then resumes cooking.   
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"Yes," Sasuke says. Naruto would want him to elaborate, but he still can’t put into words what he’s feeling. The ugly voice in his heart is always quieter when Naruto’s around. "We grew up arguing, and now you're being a housewife."   
  
Naruto flicks an eggshell at him. It bounces off his cheek.   
  
"You're a bastard," Naruto says.   
  
"Why do you try?" Sasuke asks. "I've told you before I'd put an end to myself."   
  
He doesn’t miss the way the other shinobi freezes over before returning to cooking. Sasuke lays his head on the table, dizzy, because the need to keep this dream only builds every time he thinks about it. Naruto suddenly socks him in the back of the head, hard enough that he accidentally knees the table and rattles it.   
  
Sasuke, who had up until then felt devoid and dreamlike, feels very present suddenly.   
  
"What the hell was that for, dead last?!"   
  
"I told you I'd punch you when you were sulking," Naruto grunts under his breath, arms crossed and eyes averted.   
  
"I'm not sulking!" Sasuke growls.   
  
"Sure not," Naruto says, sarcastically. He grins at the glare Sasuke gives him, and his eyes crinkle into such a soft expression Sasuke goes rigid. "I'm right here, Sasuke. You're not all alone. You can talk."   
  
Sasuke hopes this at least lasts long enough for him to be able to get to the point where he feels comfortable letting Naruto know everything without there being blood on their faces.

 

/////////////  
  
Some days Naruto drags Sasuke into the sunlight, and Sasuke has to squint against it because he keeps his room dark and isn't accustomed to it. Naruto, who once despised simple D-rank missions, does them to pass the time, because the war is over but neither of them can sit still. Peace, for both ninjas, often felt like a charged up harbinger of bloodshed.  
  
On those missions, Sasuke can't help the fact that his eyes stay on Naruto at all times. They watch his shoulders and neck and especially his face, trained on the sweat on Naruto's brow and the strong line of his jaw, on Naruto's mouth and hair and ocean eyes. He can't help the tiny smile that curves on his mouth when Naruto calls his name, and sometimes the way Naruto speaks reminds him of those better dreams, once where he shakes as he feels Naruto's lips falling across his shoulders and neck, and blood rushes up to his face and down.  
  
At the end of one of their missions, returning to Naruto's apartment, Naruto asks "Isn't the couch uncomfortable?"  
  
Sasuke blinks at him, then shrugs. In reality, while he does wake up with an aching neck, the blanket that smells like Naruto lulls him to sleep in ways he could not do before. ‘ _Two months before,’_ Sasuke wonders, _‘and I hadn't noticed how long it's been. Can a dream last that long?’_  
  
"You're welcome to my bed," Naruto says. Sasuke is caught by the simplicity of the statement and the fact that it complicates Sasuke’s head, sending him off kilter with thoughts that he can’t say are very pure.  
  
If they show on his blank face, Sasuke doesn't know and Naruto doesn't tell. Instead, he follows Naruto into the bed and falls asleep surrounded by even more of Naruto's presence around him, and carefully avoiding coming in contact with Naruto himself.

 

/////////////

  
( _There is a feeling in the back of his mind, a linger of something he can give no name too yet. He is unsure if it is because he is dreaming or if it's because he possibly knows the name, but every approach to the emotion makes it slip through his fingers. It's an answer to a question he hasn't thought of yet._ )   
  
/////////////

  
They spend more time bickering than watching movies and shows they put on, laughing out loud at the idiots in horror and romance movies with cliche tropes. Sasuke no longer sees his ribs, and sleeps enough, but it's only because Naruto is there to feed him ramen and hold his shoulders still when he claws himself free of a nightmare.   
  
Sasuke hopes he doing right by planting kisses in Naruto's hair when his face becomes pained during his sleep, massaging the stump of Naruto's right arm when the phantom pains are nearly unbearable. He hopes Naruto, being the only person to see his heart, can hear the _thank you_ 's tumbling out of it when his mouth isn't capable of forming such words.   
  
"Sasuke," Naruto says, staring. Sasuke realizes Naruto is not just staring, he's staring back, which means Sasuke had zoned out and started the eye contact first.   
  
"Yeah?"   
  
"You're stuck in your head again," Naruto says, then hands him the tub of ice cream they had been sharing. Sasuke still tastes Naruto's tongue on the spoon.   
  
"Hn," is his response, because he's got the heart of a coward and still can't share what he’s thinking ( _‘Stubborn?’_ He asks himself, _‘Or stupid?’_ ). Naruto gives him a look, then glances down at the returned tub.   
  
He sighs, wistful and slow, and says, "Sometimes I think this is a dream."   
  
The setting sun throws flecks of amber over Naruto's eyes, over his tanned face and sunshine hair, and Sasuke is caught by both his words and his beauty. Sasuke touches his shirt, right over his chest, his heart beating hard and fast. He asks, rubbing the spot, "What do you mean?"   
  
Naruto doesn't respond for a moment, his right arm shifting forward. He glances at it, his eyes wide, and Sasuke knows he was going to link their index and middle fingers, just as they always had, before Sasuke destroyed it all. In hopes of redeeming it, he reaches and takes Naruto's left hand, rubbing his thumb over the calluses with his right hand.   
  
"I feel like I haven't found you yet," Naruto says. "Feels like I'm dreaming that I did and everything we're doing and have been doing will just-- I don't know -- go up in smoke." When Naruto laughs, it’s self deprecating and mirthless. "Seeing you not take care of yourself, I keep thinking: I have to help him. If I can't do it on the outside world. I can at least do it here." He holds up their tangled fingers, and whispers, "I don’t want this to be a dream. You feel real when I touch you."   
  
Without hesitation, Sasuke retorts, "I could say the same to you."   
  
Naruto gives him a questioning look, and Sasuke tries to lick the sticky remains of ice cream off his lips before he starts talking. Naruto's eyes trace the movement.   
  
"Sometimes," Sasuke begins, his weight shifting, "I feel like this is a dream too. Like I'm going to wake up alone again." He leans forward, the tips of his fingers skimming over the side of Naruto's neck. If he concentrates, he feels Naruto's pulse drumming quickly under his touch. "And I can't help but be afraid I fucked that up - that I can’t touch you." His hand finds Naruto's right arm. Naruto shivers. "Not only did I take this away-" he taps with his index finger, lightly "- I put my hands on you with the intent to hurt you. I don't have the privilege of touching you, not after that."   
  
"Do you need permission?" Naruto breathes. Sasuke draws his hand away, looks him in the eye.   
  
"What?"   
  
"I asked if you need permission."   
  
His breath hitches in his throat, shudders out a little forcefully. He knows Naruto enough to know Naruto would always say yes to him. "I don't have the right to even ask," Sasuke says, mournful and slow.   
  
Naruto has always been one to take initiative, to go first, whether or not other follow. Even between them, alone together almost every single day, he is the first to speak, the first to smile, the first to eat. Sasuke is suddenly fully aware of the fact that this is how Naruto motivates him to even get up and face the day - by doing so first. It is their most subtle competition, and both will always win, like this. Sasuke’s heart swells, thumps hard in his chest, because Naruto keeps him going even when he's forgotten how, dream or otherwise.   
  
It explains why Naruto, cunning and perceptive and completely stupid, lays a hand on Sasuke’s chest first. "Do I have your permission, then?"   
  
Sasuke nods.   
  
Naruto leans forward and kisses him.   
  
Sasuke has never felt a real kiss before, his first being taken by the one taking his now. It had been embarrassing when they were 12, still growing into their own, rivals to the end. 4 years later, and the kiss is more than _everything_ .   
  
Naruto bears down hungrily on his mouth, as if he had been waiting for centuries, and Sasuke admits that he is starved too, he been for a long, long time. Their teeth clack when they shift the kiss, which only makes them more urgent in getting in each other's spaces. They share breaths and swipe at each other's tongues, nipping and sucking at each other's lips, memorizing the heat of their mouths and traded breaths. Naruto's hand slips under his shirt and flattens on his stomach, and Sasuke presses his fingers into the nape of Naruto's neck, twisting into his hair and yanking him ever closer. Sasuke lets out a soft moan, opening his eyes to find himself pressed to the floor with Naruto's heat pressing down on him, and _no dream could ever be this real._   
  
In the dwindling light, they work each other's clothes off, skin to skin, and Naruto presses kisses into his face and cheeks, each an answer to the questions churning in Sasuke’s overheated head: _You're here, you feel real, this isn't a dream, I have you here_ .     
  
Sasuke trembles, breathing a little too heavy, and Naruto - who is usually so loud and vibrant - whispers like he could break apart under any louder noise. Sasuke feels overloaded, and the words come spilling out like a dam breaking.   
  
"Would you run after me?" He asks, his voice stuttering.   
  
"I would," Naruto bites into his collarbone.   
  
"Even if I left on my own?"   
  
"Yes," Naruto breathes into his Adams Apple.   
  
Sasuke begins to ramble, a flurry of questions and gasps: _"Would you ever stop?"_ and, _"What would you do to get me?"_ and,   _"How fast?"_ and, _"For how long?"_   
  
And Naruto never stops, not once, lapping and kissing and biting. He breathes promises, answers: _"Never."_ and, _"Anything"_ and, _"As fast as I can."_ and, _"Forever, forever."_   
  
Naruto ghosts his question into Sasuke's hip, "Would you do the same?"   
  
He stops to look up, and Sasuke looks him in the eye, whispers, "Nothing would stop me from doing it." Naruto's eyes flash, and his head dips in between Sasuke’s thighs.   
  
Naruto is the first to make him repeat what he says, even if he's only moaning, _"God, yes."_   
  
/////////////   
  
It's dark by the time they make it into bed, sweating and burning up under the sheets. Naruto's eyes are electric blue, glowing even under the duvet, and Sasuke cannot ever look away from this dream.   
  
He voices this, and Naruto's eyes crinkle when he laughs, his mouth in the shape of a daydream and his mirth like warm honey in tea. Sasuke laughs with him until the bed is shaking, but soon Naruto's laugh takes over his senses, so bright and so entrancing,  until he he finds himself simply staring at Naruto. Naruto stops laughing, and he's not sure how he looks to Naruto, but whatever he sees is enough for him to reach out and comb his fingers through the right side of Sasuke’s hair.   
  
The emotion he could not name suddenly gives itself a word, and Sasuke closes his eyes and relaxes against the sheets. Naruto, first as always, says it slowly.   
  
"I love you."   
  
Hoping Naruto can still read him, because he cannot form the words anyway, he simply offers a smile back, and presses closer to Naruto.   
  
_"Hn."_   
  
/////////////   
  
They wake late in the day, and don't move for a long time, kissing and whispering promises into each other’s lips. Naruto's head is pillowed on his chest, and even if he wanted to move, to pinch Naruto’s cheeks to be completely positive, nothing would change the fact that his eyes were wide open, and had been from the moment Naruto brought him back.   
  
"I just remembered," Naruto murmurs.   
  
"What?"   
  
"You finished all the ice cream yesterday," Naruto growls, and punches his side sleepily.   
  
Sasuke’s laugh bubbles up slowly, and he touches Naruto's head in a last bid to remember that Naruto is real and is the first ( _the one and only,_ he muses, the ragged edges of the hole in his heart smoothing) to have saved him.   
  
_I'm awake,_ he thinks giddily, and then says aloud “I’m awake.” 

**Author's Note:**

> the songs that inspired most of this:  
> 1\. You're On My Mind by Passenger  
> 2\. In Dreams by Ben Howard  
> (give them a listen and you'll probably see how they're inspirations)  
> Title is from the second song.  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
